Before Me, A New Horizon
by Lionus
Summary: The gangly bookworm's messing with her brain and Gajeel's going to figure out why. Even if she has to sit in this library, watching him, until supper time. Genderbend.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Fairy Tail.

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She's just set in front of him, staring him down and chewing on a hand full of bolts he sincerely hopes isn't from some important fixture in the guild hall. The last thing he needs is to be seen with her right before a banister or piece of wall falls on Elf or, worse, her brother, the Demon.

He chose to ignore her, Gajeel may be otherwise socially inept, but she's not dense. Levy was more than a little busy at the moment, it's not that he wanted her to find someone else to heckle. Although, that'd be nice too. It's just that he'd obviously been cooped up in the library for the past three days for a reason.

Heavy tomes and references and dictionaries and history periodicals were stacked all around him in a fortress of solitude and in an obvious sign of _'needs no interruptions'_.

But when Gajeel gets something in her head the point is moot.

She wanted answers and she was hellbent on getting them right that second. For a long time, she'd surmised that the twisted snap of her innards any time she was thrown into interaction with the kid in front of her was because of what she'd done. When she attacked Fairy Tail and nearly tortured him and his puny, little yipping poodles.

Levy didn't leave when she entered a room or stepped close anymore, he'd been one of the first to make her feel like one of them. So it couldn't be that, they had settled the past in their own way.

By now, it was ridiculous how often she felt _it_ around him. So, she'd observe and find her answer because it had all grown old and she was more than tired of it all.

Levy gave her a curious look, brow arched to the headband he always wore, but didn't say anything to her. If she just wanted to sit there silently, fine by him. He plucked the first book from the stack and started his work. It was easier to get lost in the words he was transcribing than he had believed it to be. In no time, he had managed to plow through the thick of the tome, courtesy of his enchanted glasses, without thinking about having an audience.

He scratched down his notes every now and again, blind to the determined form in front of him.

Gajeel had inched closer and closer to the bookworm, almost proud that she had done so without raising suspicion. _Tch, what a nerd. _It was one of few times she was thankful he had the focus of a mountain. She used her booted feet to draw her closer to him, hunched and eyes flying over texts with a speed that impressed her. Not that she would ever tell him. _Again._

The weird feeling creeped back into her system and she started to think those bolts from the lights might have been a little more rusted than was sanitary. Even for her iron belly. That deduction's cut off with the memory of Laxus' attack and being locked up by Freed with him and Salamander. Other than their ill-fated first meeting and blocking Laxus' lightning, she hadn't ever really said more than five syllables to the boy each time. She recalled the dorky black frames that precariously set on his nose and his resolute, _strong_, eyes boring her down and telling her that he would free them. His words had been spoken with an iron will that challenged even her own.

She thinks that might have been where it started. She knew the feeling didn't stem from fearing his hardened gaze. The beanpole was hardly somethin' to look at, let alone fear in the night. It had to be something else, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Metalicana hadn't exactly sat her down with a lesson on the range of human emotions when she was a kid.

_You're somethin' else…_

The weird sensation flared and she cursed under her breath at the heat crawling over her cheeks. _Damn._

"Huh? What was that?" Levy peered over the top of the frames and blinked up at her.

"What?"

"Did you say something?" His blue brows scrunched toward his eyes in disbelief that she didn't know _what_ he was referring to.

"N-no, yer spendin' too much time with yer books. Yer hearin' things." Gajeel scoffed and turned her nose up at the boy in front of her. Levy wondered if she was ever aware the action made lights glint prettily against the studs decorating her slim nose.

"O-okay…Hey, are you all right?" His eyes narrowed at her scrutinizingly and then widened, finally registering the distinctly smaller space between them. Her knees were a fraction away from brushing his. One good inhale of breath and they would be. "Gajeel, what's this about? If there's something you have to say, you ca-"

"I don't like this." The studded girl motioned to her gut, but Levy missed the meaning behind the gesture and assumed she had been referring to the current situation.

"I didn't exactly invite you over here, you can leave when you want, _Gajeel_."

"Not that."

"Then what?" Levy sighed exasperatedly, he was used to the odd circular conversation with the girl once in a blue moon. However, it was becoming more and more frequent as the days wore on. She'd get more and more monosyllabic with him and grouchy. It made him nervous, maybe she didn't think they were friends after all.

"I-" As she tried to get it all out and form the sentences, the words suddenly seemed stupid to her. If she laid it all out in front of him the wrong way he'd probably hate her, not that he didn't already have every right too. She wasn't exactly the nicest chick in the guild. Or came from the sunniest side of the tracks for that matter.

"Do you feel sick? Where _exactly_ did those bolts you ate come from?"

Gajeel huffed and crossed her arms irritably over her bust, "It's not that."

"Look, I'm really busy here and if this isn't important, Porylusica would be more suite-"

"You make me feel strange."

"You- _Wait_. I what now?"

Gajeel scooted closer and got nose to nose with him to punctuate her words, "You." She lifted one boot after the other on each side of him, placed between his arms and the rest of his body, "Make me." Levy's cheeks pinked in time with her own, "F-feel strange."

"W-well how is that my problem?" She'd thoroughly thrown him through a loop, Gajeel was blunt to a fault but eloquence was not her thing.

"It's not."

He yanked the glasses from his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, they were getting nowhere and he didn't expect Gajeel to suddenly become forthcoming anytime soon.

"But _why_?" The last word of her inquiry came out growled and impatient, she wanted this over and done with. The volatile anger that would inevitably follow her impatience only made the situation even more frustrating.

"H-how should I know?!" Oh, Levy knew. He had more than gotten the hint over time, but that hint had transformed into a blatant entity in a matter of seconds on this day. If Gajeel herself hadn't figured it out yet, Levy wasn't just going to tell her. That'd make it too easy and might give her some upper hand to embarrass him or tell him he's actually been wrong this entire time and there's no way a tough dragon slayer like her would go for a puny bookworm.

"Do you feel strange around _me_?"

"Well, you're currently invading my personal space, so I don't see how I couldn't. Speaking of which, get off me, please. "

Gajeel simmered in his lap, _in his lap_, and pushed her face even closer to his. His stupid eyes were nearly going cross-eyed with the effort to still pin her with his best scowl. "You know what I mean, Levy. I'm tired of this weird as hell-"

He'd finally snapped. Levy McGarden wasn't someone usually spontaneous or forward. He'd spent too many days in this pile of books and he'd finally lost it because of the stress. The way she'd perched herself unceremoniously in his lap and dared invade it further by sticking her face in his, set it all in motion. That's the only explanation he has as his arm shot around her waist and jerked her forward to seal his mouth over hers. Levy's distantly aware and careful of the long locks twined around his fingers at her back when she moves. The studs on her chin pressed against his bottom lip and the smooth ones lining her nose grazed along his cheek as she resituated.

Levy flushed deeper at the feeling of her kissing him back and definitely, most definitely, responding with more force than he would ever imagine kissing a girl with.

Levy pulled away first and met her blazing stare, "Like that kind of strange?"

Gajeel's hands came to life with the words, she set them along his jaw and it strikes him how small they feel against his face. She hummed thoughtfully for a second before answering. If Levy's heart wasn't somewhere hung up in his esophagus, he would have laughed at the fact that it sounded more like a growl. "Yeah…I guess so."

He'd wait until later when he wasn't just a few breathes away from a chokehold to break it to her that he had kind of known all along.

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**A/N: **So here we have a shameless genderbend inspired by/based off of rboz's (on tumblr) stellar fanart. Originally posted to tumblr, link to that in my profile.

There's a few kinks to be worked out with the multi-chap I mentioned in the notes of my last fic. A title and summary line are sort of a big thing here, apparently. _But_ I'm hoping everything smoothes out and it should be up by the end of this week.

One last thing, thank you for the continued love for my other fics. It's definitely a boost for fic ideas and wanting to write for FT.


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